Trade in Service Agreement (TISA), a Trial for stalemate WTO/DDA in Maritime Transport

The Trade in Service Agreement (TISA), a new plurilateral service agreement and a prominent substitute negotiation for stalemate DDA negotiations has been discussed by the participating 22 countries including Korea, USA, EU countries, Japan, and other countries since 2012. In maritime transport services, we could recognize a confrontation between European participants asserting full liberalisation of feeder services and transportation of transport equipment within domestic water of member countries, and Asian participants and American participants protecting cabotage activities. Even though the discussion over cabotage issues is becoming severer, we find a progress on liberalisation of maritime transport, especially commitment draft of the United States at land-side transport services, and new definition on maritime offshore services by Norway.